Take turns to roll the dice and gradually build your beetle (you must start with the body).

In the old days, we used to meet weekly and ran bingo and beetle drives to raise money.

Winnie said she remembered shows being suspended during the Second World Ward and members held a number of whist and beetle drives to keep the group together - and also put together packages for the boys on the front line.

Origin

The meaning of the source word for this creature is ‘biter’, and it is closely related to bite. The other word beetle, ‘a heavy mallet’, is unrelated. It comes ultimately from the ancestor of beat, ‘to strike’. The Beetle is an affectionate name for a type of small Volkswagen car that was first produced in 1938. The term started as a nickname, and was not officially adopted by the company until the 1960s. A review of the car in Motor magazine during 1946 said: ‘It has the civilian saloon body on the military chassis with the higher ground clearance, and it looks rather like a beetle on stilts.’ Beetle-browed means ‘having bushy eyebrows’. In Middle English brow was always an eyebrow and not the forehead; it has been suggested that the comparison is with the tufted antennae of certain beetles, which may have been called eyebrows in both English and French.

verb

From sowing to pulling, retting to rippling, spinning to weaving, beetling to bleaching, a long, exhausting and sometimes dangerous business made a cloth so precious it was put under armed guard and cost thieves their lives.

Origin

The meaning of the source word for this creature is ‘biter’, and it is closely related to bite. The other word beetle, ‘a heavy mallet’, is unrelated. It comes ultimately from the ancestor of beat, ‘to strike’. The Beetle is an affectionate name for a type of small Volkswagen car that was first produced in 1938. The term started as a nickname, and was not officially adopted by the company until the 1960s. A review of the car in Motor magazine during 1946 said: ‘It has the civilian saloon body on the military chassis with the higher ground clearance, and it looks rather like a beetle on stilts.’ Beetle-browed means ‘having bushy eyebrows’. In Middle English brow was always an eyebrow and not the forehead; it has been suggested that the comparison is with the tufted antennae of certain beetles, which may have been called eyebrows in both English and French.

adjective

He furrows his beetle brows and fixes his stare on the turf in front, indifferent to the periphery.

Beneath the beetle brow and the thinning combover, however, lurked a singular songwriting talent.

He turned towards her; his eyes flashing under his beetling eyebrows.

Origin

Mid 16th century (as an adjective): back-formation from beetle-browed, first recorded in Middle English. The verb was apparently used as a nonce word by Shakespeare and was later adopted by other writers.

The meaning of the source word for this creature is ‘biter’, and it is closely related to bite. The other word beetle, ‘a heavy mallet’, is unrelated. It comes ultimately from the ancestor of beat, ‘to strike’. The Beetle is an affectionate name for a type of small Volkswagen car that was first produced in 1938. The term started as a nickname, and was not officially adopted by the company until the 1960s. A review of the car in Motor magazine during 1946 said: ‘It has the civilian saloon body on the military chassis with the higher ground clearance, and it looks rather like a beetle on stilts.’ Beetle-browed means ‘having bushy eyebrows’. In Middle English brow was always an eyebrow and not the forehead; it has been suggested that the comparison is with the tufted antennae of certain beetles, which may have been called eyebrows in both English and French.